Australia needs to reconsider how it funds the arts, writes the head of the Australian Council Jennifer Bott. “Australians now spend $10 billion annually on arts goods; 85 per cent of Australian adults attend cultural events or performances; 78 per cent read for pleasure on most days; and close to 30 per cent of Australia’s children are involved in after-school arts activities. All this builds a grid of new arts stakeholders whose needs must be considered by the Australia Council along with its more traditional areas of focus. The arts develop qualities that are the building blocks of the new economies shaping the world. Demand for the arts is growing but, by and large, funding is not.”